# Father Vasily — The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories character guide

> Father Vasily in The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Vasily

**First appearance:** 0087-father-vasily

## Snapshot

A village priest who gave up a brilliant academic future to marry for a parish, and who now rides through snow to comfort the dying and the bereaved.

## Who they are

Father Vasily studied brilliantly at the seminary and dreamed of a professorship, but renounced it to support his widowed mother, taking a poor living and a plain wife. He has spent twenty-two years absorbing small humiliations with a self-denial he never names aloud. His quiet kindness in the cart, disarming a peasant's anger, shows a man whose whole life has been a slow, unglamorous act of love.

## In the story

### [Father Vasily](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/leo_tolstoy_short_fiction_se/chapters/father-vasily)

The village priest, a kind man prone to self-reflection. He is called to administer last rites, reflects on accusations of hypocrisy, and recalls his past self-sacrifice for his family.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/leo_tolstoy_short_fiction_se/characters/father_vasily
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/leo_tolstoy_short_fiction_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/leo_tolstoy_short_fiction_se/characters